Aesthetica Magazine Issue 44

December / January 2012

This issue offers a diverse range of features starting with The Way We Live Now, which is on at the Design Museum and explores Sir Terence Conran’s impact on contemporary life in Britain. Sharon Lockhart: Lunch Break runs at SFMOMA and reflects on the position of the individual in the framework of industrial labour. Anselm Kiefer opens Shevirat Ha-Kelim: The Breaking of the Vessels at Tel Aviv Museum of Art to inaugurate their new building. Zarina Bhimji’s retrospective of 30 years and the premiere of her new film Yellow Patch open at Whitechapel. There’s a visual survey of this year’s winner and shortlisted photographers for the National Portrait Gallery’s photography prize, and we look back at this year’s cover artists with an overview of their works, as well as introduce two new series of works.

In film, highly acclaimed and award-winning director, Pablo Giorgelli, talks about his subtle and beautiful new film, Las Acacias. There is also a round-up of ASFF 2011. In music, we examine the niche genre of musical comedy and chat with American four-piece Wild Flag about their new album. In performance, we look at Danser Sa Vie at Pompidou Centre, which examines the place dance holds in art history. Finally, Christoph Benjamin Schulz discusses Alice in Wonderland, Tate Liverpool’s latest show.

Expression through Dance

The Pompidou Centre stages a new exhibition detailing the place of dance in art history and its influence on visual arts.

First Aid Kit

You won’t find a more powerful piece of Americana than the title track on First Aid Kit’s new album. The Lions Roar is immense; dark skies over the open prairie.

Hyperpotamus

It would be impossible to call the music of Hyperpotamus derivative, and you won’t have ever heard an album like Delta.

Boys Noize

For listeners who are familar with this DJ and producer’s secret performances at festivals, this record is a disco-pulsed trip down memory lane.

Confronting the Past

Tel Aviv Museum of Art is that rarest of institutions: an art gallery with a political legacy. The original building was the former home of the first mayor of Tel Aviv, who bequeathed the property in his will.

History in Context

There are unseen lines that cross the earth, lines that make little concession to land or water but are owed and owing to both, through industry and habitation.

Industrial Realism

Lunch Break is an unsentimental, yet deeply humane, portrait that examines the changing roles of workers, depicting the drastic shift in the social, political and economic landscape of the 21st century.

The Way We Live Now

Were you to walk down a street today and look through the windows of the houses, you would witness a wide variety of living spaces: homeowners today are preoccupied with design and the arrangement of the world around them.

Talking Images

This year’s Taylor Wessing includes thought-provoking and captivating works. Jooney Woodward won this prize for her portrait, Harriet and Gentleman Jack.

The Inaugural Festival

The UK film climate has changed dramatically over the past 12 months; why on earth would anyone start a new short film festival? ASFF Director, Cherie Federico, tells us in her own words.

Poignant & Unlikely Encounters

Winner of several awards, Director Pablo Giorgelli discusses his latest film and how subtle direction creates powerful beauty.

Mademoiselle Chambon

When Véronique Chambon, a quietly beautiful schoolteacher meets Jean, a traditional family man, the pair embark upon a love affair that is just as demure as Véronique’s wardrobe choices.

The First Movie

Filmmaker Mark Cousins travels to Iraq with three small video cameras. His intention is to allow the children to re-imagine their country.

Sarah’s Key

In July 1942, thousands of French Jews living in Paris were taken away – first to the cramped, nearby Velodrome, then to the concentration camps.

Kill List

For a second feature, Kill List is a remarkable accomplishment of the kind that usually comes much later in a director’s oeuvre.